Final Four Fire Burns Inside For Bennett

By Jerry Ratcliffe

LOUISVILLE — It was inevitable that at some point this weekend the question would be raised about Tony Bennett having never taken a team to the Final Four.

The issue comes up every year for good coaches who haven’t reached college basketball’s pinnacle event, just as good golfers that have never won a major. There is always a constant reminder.

Bennett’s 2015-16 team, definitely a Final Four-worthy squad, should have made it to Houston that March before Syracuse happened. UVA blew a big lead and the Orange, a team that many argued didn’t belong in the tournament, staged an incredible rally to steal a Final Four trip from the Cavaliers’ grasp.

Now, Virginia is awaiting a tipoff tonight against Purdue — another program that hasn’t been to the Final Four since the 1980s — in the NCAA South Regional finals. The winner earns a trip to Minneapolis, site of this year’s Final Four.

Bennett actually has been part of a Final Four team, his father Dick Bennett’s team, at Wisconsin in 2000.

Tony Bennett had finished his NBA career and knew his father was edging toward retirement. He just wanted to be his side and enjoy the ride.

“Bang, that first year I’m a volunteer manager, and [his dad] goes to the Final Four,” Tony said. “I’m like, ‘That seems pretty easy and pretty fun. Maybe I’ll get into this coaching thing.’ I didn’t realize how tough it was.”

Without question, Tony Bennett is one of the nation’s best coaches. Many of his peers, even within his own basketball-rich Atlantic Coast Conference, believe he is the best college basketball coach in America. What he has done at Virginia is remarkable.

In the last two seasons alone, UVA is 63-6, heading into tonight’s game against the Boilermakers.

Some will say that the Cavaliers’ season won’t be a success unless they make it to Minneapolis. Final Four or Bust.

Frankly, I don’t see it that way. If the season stops at the Elite Eight, it has still been successful. 32 wins is a program record. UVA won another ACC regular season title, which is much more demanding than winning the ACC tournament. Maybe the season will be incomplete, perhaps even disappointing to some, but not unsuccessful.

Still, the sporting public refuses to acknowledge successful coaches until they’ve at least gotten to the Final Four. Once they get there, then, well they have to win one to get final approval.

I’ve talked to a lot of former coaches about that, and they all agree to label a coach that way is absurd.

Just because a coach hasn’t reached a Final Four shouldn’t diminish from his career. There are plenty of terrific coaches out there that haven’t made the Big Dance, such as Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, Louisville’s Chris Mack, Baylor’s Scott Drew, even Purdue’s Matt Painter.

Villanova’s Jay Wright and Gonzaga’s Mark Few were both haunted with that label until they finally made it.

“So are they automatically better coaches for having gone to the Final Four?” asked Seth Greenberg, a former coach (and a pretty good one) who is now an ESPN basketball analyst. “Of course not.”

There are some coaches that have guided their programs to Final Fours that all of us would likely agree aren’t great coaches. We won’t name names — Porter Moser, Kevin Ollie, Paul Hewitt, John Brady — but you get the picture.

Nobody on the planet would like to take his team to the Final Four any more than Tony Bennett. He’s as competitive a person as you’ll run across, although his outer demeanor would not hint at that fire.

“I’d love if it happened, but if it doesn’t happen, you have to say, ‘Hey, are you going to be okay?’ And that’s what I learned, and that’s invaluable. So I’m at peace, but I’m very hungry,” Bennett said Friday.

Losing to UMBC in that historic No. 1 seed losing to a No. 16 for the first time last season, changed Bennett in a way.

“It created a fire in me that made me want to become a better coach and pursue trying to get these guys to as far as they can, a Final Four, a national championship,” Bennett said. “It’s burning hot, but it did something I think maybe as significant or greater. It made me realize that if that never does happen, I’ll still be okay because I’ve been blessed beyond what I deserve.

“I think that has freed me up to go after this as hard as I can, as hard as we can,” Bennett added. “Do these guys want this? Does Purdue want this? Do I want that? Would I love to be a son and father who coached in a Final Four? That would be great.”

Virginia is a 4.5-point favorite to beat the Boilermakers and make Tony Bennett and Dick Bennett the first father-son duo in major college history to take teams to the Final Four.